Prison Radio Association

Meet Lady Unchained, presenter of our award-winning National Prison Radio Show Free Flow 📻 Lady Unchained plays the beat twice, so you can get your bars right - spreading the joy and power of the pen through her weekly freestyle rap show. Alongside our friends at the Shannon Trust she encourages people to embrace creativity, reading and writing during their time behind bars, just as she did ✍️ A powerful role-model, a fierce spirit and an absolute laugh-a-minute - Lady Unchained is a true legend. In our latest blog, she reflects on life at the PRA: https://lnkd.in/eebjdPmD

You have ONE day left to apply for the unique opportunity to be a radio producer in HMP Styal! 🤩 Working alongside women serving prison sentences, you’ll be part of a small, high-performing staff team – making life-changing programmes for broadcast into prison cells across the country on National Prison Radio 📻 Come and join the Prison Radio Association! ✨ Apply here: https://lnkd.in/efGha_h5

East London legend Hak Baker popped into our studio recently to talk to the Outside In lads about his journey through prison, loss, music, and inspiration 👊 Outside In is our charity’s new podcast that showcases the talents of prison leavers who learnt their craft while working on National Prison Radio during their sentence. By interviewing people like Hak, our trainees not only get to continue building their skills and experience behind the screen and mic, but they also get to hear words of wisdom from people who truly understand their experience. Hak, we’re lucky to have you working with us, thank you for swinging by 👌 🎧 Listen to Hak’s full episode of Outside In: https://lnkd.in/eVwHSzmR

Earlier in the year, Edd Flanagan and I had the pleasure of being invited to the BBC to record with the #radio4 team and Hilary Ineomo-Marcus for 'Outside In' (Edd joined from Skype!). This show runs in #prison itself, but we got to listen to the episode ourselves today and I'm super pleased and proud of the team for how hard they worked on this show and dedication to their art 🙌 Outside In is produced and presented entirely by people who learnt their craft while working at Prison Radio Association during their sentence. They interview big names who have experienced life behind bars, while providing guidance and practical tips to help ease the transition back to life after release, from those who have ‘been there done that’. We were super stoked to discuss Edd's #sobriety and #rehabilitation journey, and life when resettling outside of prison, along with other guests discussing projects they have started post-release to support their rehabilitation. Edd and I are both firm believers in how the creative process can help people move forward with their lives after experiencing difficult circumstances and it was a pleasure to take part with him in this recording. I know Edd- who describes himself as not an example but a 'warning' 😂😁🙌👌- is looking for more #livedexperience opportunities relating to prison and recovery from #substancemisuse, so please reach out to him via linkedin if you are interested ♥️ I really love that Outside In is run by people with lived experience, for people who are in prison now to talk them through coming out and making a brighter future for themselves; this is something we are hoping to collaborate on more in the future with our own projects with people with convictions. I can assure you they are some very creative and dedicated minds on this population 😊 There is a podcast version that you can follow on Spotify here 👌: https://lnkd.in/g63ErBYr ps no I did not knock Ribena on anything, yes I am proud of myself for this thnx 😂🙌 #prison #prisonradio #rehabilitation #bbc #radio #hmp

Be the sound of change. 7 days to go ⏰ At this exact time, in exactly one week, we we will be snipping our big red digital ribbon to unveil our first EVER Big Give fundraising campaign ✂️ That means, for an entire week, we are giving you the opportunity to get your donation doubled and ensure that we can continue making life-changing, wave-making radio behind bars. 👉 7 days to double your donation 👉 £5,000 to raise 👉 80,000 lives to change Biro Tuesday 3rd December into those diaries. Let's get it 🚀 Head to www.prison.radio/biggive to find out more Lady Unchained

I’m so proud to lead this partnership project with Women in Prison and HMPPS Women’s Group, and even more delighted it’s continuing for another year. We’ve recorded some really powerful radio in women’s prisons, and I’m grateful to all the women who shared their stories.  #16DaysOfAction2024

Gold for Best Ensamble Cast 🥇🤍✨ Really exciting night at the Audio Production Awards! Zakarriyah Katakyie Addae-kodua Khalil and I were up against some incredible competition, and it was such an honour to take the gold. Big shoutout to our wonderful producer Bethany Madden who won Bronze, Arthur for his Gold and all our other colleagues who were nominated. A huge thanks to the AudioUK for recognising us, but also to everyone at the Prison Radio Association who supports and believes in everything we do. The biggest thanks to all our incredible guests who join us week after week and trust us with their stories. And of course to our Life After Prison community - we couldn’t do it without you!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of 16 days of action against domestic abuse, a world wide campaign fighting to end violence against women and girls ✊ Women make up roughly 4% of the total prison population, and of those roughly 3,500 women, over 60% have experienced domestic or sexual violence. We understand that the National Prison Radio audience needs programmes that can help them access support and services, help identify warning signs of abuse and even understand the real impacts domestic violence can have on victims. That’s why over the past 18 months, we have been proud to work in partnership with Women in Prison and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) Women’s Group to create a vital series of programmes speaking to women and staff involved in Women in Prison’s ‘Creating Community Connections’ programme. ‘Creating Community Connections’ is a domestic violence programme taking place in women’s prisons across the country to offer support during prison sentences and through the gate on release. National Prison Radio producers have been travelling around the women’s prison estate with Lady Unchained, using creative writing workshops and the power of the pen to tell stories in the women’s own words of domestic violence and how they have found hope and strength in their survival ✍️ We’re delighted that this series will continue for another year. It will shine a light on vital domestic violence services and other key areas of women’s experiences of the criminal justice system, including mother and baby units and drugs and alcohol interventions.

I'm not great at photos so forgive the blurry shot but it was a massive night for Life After Prison and the Prison Radio Association at the AudioUK awards this week. Our wonderful producer Bethany Madden took home the Bronze Award for Best Lifestyle and Society Producer and our incredible presenters Zakarriyah Katakyie Addae-kodua Khalil and Jules Rowan took home the Gold Award for Best Ensemble cast. Our PRA colleague Arthur Hagues won a gold too for Best Arts and Culture Producer. I am beyond proud and happy to work with these brilliant people.

Oh what a night! 🥇🥇🥉 Mid November at the APA’s. Gold, Gold, Bronze and nominations for days. What a team, what a night. Forever proud of our incredible producers, presenters and everyone else behind the scenes. More trophies, more recognition and more awareness that there truly is life after prison. Thank you to everyone at AudioUK for understanding and believing in what we do here at the Prison Radio Association. Audio Production Awards 2024 - smashed it 🔥 Long read here: https://lnkd.in/e5WjgHu8